Similar to many other companies in industries ranging from aggregates to animal feeds, this aggregates consumer was finding the rising costs of having sand deliveries blown straight into site silos hugely prohibitive. With their margins and even future production under threat, they contracted Customate to find a solution.

To achieve sustainable cost reduction, the solution required enabling delivery of sand in 1200kg bags. Operational constraints required the sand to be kept dry, the pressure into the silo needed to be consistently less than 1 bar, while 1200kg of sand needed to be blown every 3 minutes.

Back at base, Customate engineers designed and fabricated a test rig. Replicating site conditions, three injection points allowed sand to be successfully blown at 1 bar. The final product comprised a blow pot with a bespoke software system, allowing operatives to empty delivery bags into a hopper capable of holding 1200kg, and blowing the sand in just 5 cycles with no added water.